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The Football Pools was a revolutionary form of football gambling that began almost 100 years ago.
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Its growth after the 2nd World War saw millions of people play every week.
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Online and other gambling options has seen its popularity decline in recent times.
Guide To Pools Betting
From humble beginnings in Liverpool, England, when three friends invested £50 apiece of their own money to set up a new type of betting on football matches, the Football Pools survived the Great Depression, court cases, the Blitz and more to grow into a phenomenon, for many decades the most popular way of putting on a football bet.
For millions, the ritual of clutching their coupons while checking the scores on a Saturday afternoon was an integral part of a weekend - though plenty still sit waiting to see the football pool result today.
It was the inspiration of one man who saw the game’s potential that helped this exciting new game take off. At its height, 14 million people played the Pools every week, and it is easy to see why its popularity endured down the years.
Despite its relative decline it remains to this day, making the Pools the world’s oldest football gaming company. Here, we look at the poolresult history and how it works.
Football Pools History
Few people will know that the origins of the Football Pools lie with its creator John Jervis Barnard, who saw a market for betting on the outcome of football matches.
The idea was a game where those who successfully predicted results received winnings from the “pool” of money collected that week.
Barnard doubted the idea would ever make him a fortune, but when he met John Moores its eventual success was guaranteed.
Moores saw its potential, and along with two friends Colin Askham and Bill Hughes, invested £150 into trying to make it work. Back in the early days of the UK pool result coupon, it was certainly hard work...
They printed four thousand coupons and handed them out at Old Trafford on a Saturday afternoon. The Pools was born, and it eventually made Moores a billionaire.
Their scheme was not an instant success however, and was almost abandoned, but Moore kept faith and bought his two friend’s stakes, a decision they greatly regretted.
Eventually the coupon caught the imagination of the British public, under the name of Littlewoods, and its success saw rival companies such as Vernons start up, eager to reap similar rewards.
But really, in the hearts of the nation, there was only one ‘Pools’, which from strength to strength with huge prizes, and eventually embraced technology, with coupons being checked electronically rather than by a huge team of women, who at one point were checking five million slips each week.
The use of big-name celebrities posing with weekend pool result winners holding huge cheques helped maintain its popularity until the rise of new forms of competition weakened its grip on the market.
Football Pools Format
While the name ‘Football Pools’ is instantly recognisable for millions over a certain age, many younger football fans will be unaware of its existence and betting format, so allow us to explain.
Different games can be played, but the essence of the Pools is that participants fill in their predictions concerning who they expect to win or draw specific matches on an official coupon.
Originally, these coupons could be picked up outside football grounds, or for most people a “Pools Man” visited homes once a week.
Get the majority of the predictions correct and you had a chance of making big money. For games that were postponed, usually due to adverse weather, a special panel sat to decide what they thought the result would have been.
The most popular game played on the coupon down the years is the Treble Chance. From the selected list of fixtures, players choose eight fixtures they think will be a score draw.
If it is a stalemate they get three points, two points for a no-score draw and a single point if one team is victorious. Like all Pools formats, those with the highest points total win a part of the pot.
For all games the principle essentially remains the same – show your skill with an expert correct score prediction or ten, and you’ll win big.
Pools Betting Trivia
A game with such a rich history is bound to give rise to plenty of fascinating trivia, much of it surrounding its landmark wins. 1950 was a big year, as it saw the first £100,000 winner.
Just three years later that amount was doubled, but it was not until 1972 that the first half-a-million-pound winner was announced: a Mr Grimes of Hampshire.
Many people played the pools as a syndicate to increase their chances of a big win, and it was a group of nurses in Wiltshire that scooped a cool million in 1986.
The biggest win ever is just shy of £3 million, but there have been plenty of hard-luck stories too from those forgetting to put on their bets, or by wasting their fortunes.
The Pools shut down during the Second World War as the coupon printers were utilised by the government to produce call-up papers, while Pools employees contributed to the war effort by sewing, rigging and packing parachutes.
Workers delivered 20,000 parachutes within the first three months of the war, and it was a 24/7 operation.
Unsurprisingly, the popularity of the Pools has spread around the globe. This week's pool result is enough to grip fans into catching the final score updates at 4.45pm on a Saturday afternoon.
A similar game in Europe is called Toto, and the most popular games abroad tend to involve players predicting victories as well as draws, sometimes known as betting tips 1x2, the three symbols entered on the coupon representing a home win, draw and away win.
Pools In Decline
There are two distinct developments in gambling that have seen the Football Pools suffer a decline over the past twenty-five years or so.
The first nail in the coffin came as early as 1994, and the introduction of the National Lottery. This gave people a new way of dreaming of untold riches, with bigger prizes and what’s more, it required no sporting knowledge or skill to participate.
It may have been deceptive, but the Lottery seemed an easier way to win big for many.
The second nail was provided by the growth of the internet and online betting.
By the start of the 21st century most bookmakers had an online presence, allowing those wishing to make a football prediction for money varied ways to do precisely that.
Nowadays, you can bet on almost anything you desire and the growth of online gambling has made the Pools look rather old-fashioned. Once the National Lottery moved online too, the future was bleak.
Pools operators had to widen their own services to stay afloat, and a Football Pools company remains in operation to this day, though there is no man knocking on to collect your coupon from you.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
FIRST PUBLISHED: 14th December 2021
